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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

8 die in far southwestern Chiuhuahua

A total of eight unidentified individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in far southern Chihuahua state, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news report posted on the website of Animal Politico, the victims were killed in four separate incidents Sunday and Monday in Guadalupe y Calvo and Baborigame municipalities.

According to a report submitted by Chihuahua Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) three individuals were found shot to death along a road between the villages of Santa Tulita and Baborigame.

According to a separate account which appeared in the online edition of El Sol de Parral news daily, the three victims were identified as Andres Garcia Ayala, 64, Josefina Torres Carrillo, 34, and Miguel Loera Carrillo, 28.

The news account also said that a dispute between neighbors may be a factor in the shootings. One unidentified suspect has been detained in connection with the shooting.

The body of an unidentified 15 year old male was also found Sunday in the village of La Mesa in Baborigame municipality. He had been shot once in the face. The victim is said to be connected to the feud between two families.

In Guadalupe y Calvo municipality three more unidentified victims were found shot to death on a road between Guadalupe y Calvo and Parral city, near a location called Las Gallinas.

According to a separate account which appeared on the website of El Sol de Parral, the three victims were identified as Valentin Gonzalez Lopez, 61, Daniel Molina Vargas, 24m and Anastasio Gonzalez Ramos, 68. The body of Gonzalez Lopez,was found dismembered.

An eighth shooting victim was found in San Francisco del Oro municiplaity, which is also in far southern Chihuahua state Sunday.

The victim was identified as farmer Chalaca Salvador Dominguez, 40, of Valle de Rosario. He was found lying face down, his hands bound in an arroyo in ejido El Encinal. He had been shot once with a semiautomatic pistol.

Separately, the spokesman for the Chihuahua state FGE said a sawmill in the village of Ojo Frío had been set afire and destroyed.

The southern Chihuahua and western Chihuahua state encompasses en area known as the Sierra Tarahumara. It was announced last February by Chihuahua governor Cesar Duarte Jaquez that a new security operation would begun in the region this time including the first of the new federal Policia Gendarmaria (PG) security police. Part of that operation was to increase the use of checkpoints in the region.

The new operation has come met with some success. According to a news report which appeared in the online edition of El Heraldo de Chihuahua news daily, the bishop of the Sierra Tarahumara, Rafael Sandoval Sandoval lamented security could be improved but has also said, according to the news account, "progress" has been made by authorities.

Chihuahua state is one of 14 states in Mexico which are undergoing midterm elections for local deputies and municipality presidents. The elections in the Sierra Tarahumara is a factor given local authorities actions a year ago when it was leaked that aid sent to the region was withheld on promises of votes.

The new national government headed by Enriqiue Pena Nieto has been pushing its latest social initiative, La Cruzada Contra la Hambre or Crusade Against Hunger, a program which has already garnered severe criticism in entities which as Veracruz amid accusations it will be used for political purposes.

Many of the municipalities of the Sierra Tarahumara are likely recipients of Pena's latest initiative since they are amongst the poorest in Mexico.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com